Few studies have analyzed the effect of the drivers of school performance over time. This research investigates how school-level student characteristics, such as funding and student-teacher ratio, influence school academic performance in the short-term and in long-term, a key differentiating feature of this work from other studies. Our focus is on the U.S. state of Georgia, but the setting of Georgia is the same as settings throughout the U.S.: considerable variation between schools in achievement and resources. In this study, school performance is defined as the proportion of students that meet or exceed benchmarks on end of year exams. Study findings indicate that teacher experience, measured by average number of years teaching, and student-teacher ratio exhibit the largest effect in both the short and long-term. Poverty rate exhibited a strong negative effect on school performance, confirming previous studies. However, poverty rate had the most impact in the STEM subjects of math and science. School funding did not show any significant effect in school performance in the short-term, but a significant positive effect in the long-term, such that increased school funding per pupil improved school performance in future years. Our results indicate that investing resources to increase the number of teachers and hiring teachers with more experience can be economically more effective than simply increasing the per-pupil spending, at least in the short-term.

In this investigation, the numbers and percentages of students who were enrolled in special education and who received a discipline consequence (i.e., in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, expulsion, Disciplinary Alternative Education Program placement, and Juvenile Justice Education Program placement) during the 2012-2013 through 2015-2016 school years were determined. In each of these four school years, the number of students in special education who were assigned an exclusionary discipline assignment steadily decreased.  The percentages of the total exclusionary assignments given to students in special education, however, did not decrease but rather remained stable across the four school years.  Recommendations for research and implications are discussed along with suggestions for policy and practice.

As medical students are responsible for understanding vast medical content in a short amount of time, instructors have shifted their focus to include flipped classroom model and use innovative educational tools in class to facilitate stronger comprehension and critical thinking. While there are many audience response systems (ARS) available, the cost to the institution and students in the form of licenses, and installation of hardware can be a significant problem. Besides, faculty can show resistance in adopting these tools. Mentimeter is a web-based ARS that is low cost and is available on any device anytime. We wanted to inquire about its impact on learning in our medical students since course evaluations are usually retrievable at the end of course. By analyzing satisfaction surveys, this study looked at the utilization of Mentimeter in a medical physiology course. Medical students overwhelmingly agreed that Mentimeter is a useful tool for exam preparation in clarifying difficult concepts and appreciated an instructor-led readiness assessment several days before their first exam. We believe that the use of this application can help explain basic concepts, make office hours more constructive, and bring a paradigm shift in readiness assessment for medical students in both preclinical and clinical curriculum.

In this investigation, the degree to which differences were present between private elementary school principals at Small-size schools (i.e., less than 250 students) and private elementary school principals at Large-size schools (i.e., 250 or more students) in problem matters that occurred on their school campus was addressed.  Data were acquired from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 Principal Survey.  Statistically significant differences were revealed in four of the eight areas private elementary school principals rated in frequency as a problem matter that occurred on their school campus.  Principals of Large-size schools emphasized statistically significant more problem matters in children bringing in or using illegal drugs, vandalism of school property, student bullying, and class cutting than principals of Small-size schools.  Suggestions for future research and implications for policy and practice were made.

The philosophies of Kuhn and Feyerabend not only imply different ways to perform science, they also imply different ways to teach science, particularly at the graduate level. I am especially concerned about teaching at the graduate level in my area of psychology but the argument likely could be generalized outside of psychology. In essence, I argue that teaching graduate level psychology modeled after Feyerabend is better than that modeled after Kuhn.